A terrible blow was struck at the working class of Scotland
on Bloody Friday, 31 January 1919. A mass movement was started on the Clyde
on the Monday prior to reduce the working week to forty hours. The movement
rapidly spread over the industrial belt of Scotland. A strike for a
forty-four-hour week was simultaneously proceeding in Belfast, where the
stoppage was almost complete. The Tyneside also had its strike on the
meal-time question…. Had the strike feeling spread the whole country
might have been involved, and in the temper of the people at the time the
government feared a revolution such as had swept Germany into the hands of
the “right” socialists.

The movement had to be nipped in the bud, and the opportunity presented
itself in the move of the workers, who appealed to the Lord Provost of
Glasgow to force the employers to grant the shorter working week.

On the Wednesday the Lord Provost told the strikers’ deputation to call
at the City Chambers on Bloody Friday. Meantime, acting under instructions
from Bonar Law, the Lord Provost made preparations to trap the people. The
tramway services provided the authorities with the required provocation on
the fatal day. The strikers had calculated that the tramway workers would
join them, and so disorganise the transport to and from the works.

The failure of the tramwaymen to respond to the strike call embittered
the strikers, who on occasions became very nasty to them. This was known to
the authorities, who in consequence planned that cars should run through
George Square as usual on Bloody Friday, although the Square was packed
with as immense a crowd as had ever gathered there before.

The man immediately responsible was the general manager, James
Dalrymple. Of course, he was acting in conjunction with the police under
Chief Constable Stevenson; and the latter was carrying out the instructions
of the capitalist town councillors led by the magistrates and the Lord
Provost.

Had no cars been sent through the Square, packed to excess with strikers
who were provoked by the treachery of the tramwaymen and [tramway] women,
no riot would have been started and the Chief Constable’s
“gallant” men would have got no excuse to crack the skulls of
defenceless, innocent people….

The tramway workers were not entirely to blame for being at work. On
their side, the major part of the blame rests on the shoulders of their
then union (Municipal Employees’ Association) organiser, the brave soldier,
Bailie A. Turner….

Of course fine profits were being made out of the trams, profits that
largely ought to have gone to improve the lot of the employees. Dalrymple’s
salary went up all right. When the war broke out, Dalrymple used the car
system and the profits, not only to help recruiting and other war work, but
to get a knighthood as well. That is why I nicknamed him “Sir”
James Dalrymple from early on in the war, a form of ridicule that probably
played some part in turning people against him and preventing him attaining
the desired goal.

He used his spies effectively at the depots, and by that means stampeded
men into joining the army without any show of force or open threats on his
part…

Naturally amongst those remaining on the car system in January 1919,
there was a feeling of complete despondency and demoralisation. Turner had
been away fighting the enemy in France when he should have been fighting
them in Glasgow. The women, who had been introduced on to the cars for the
war period, had neither interest in the union as a rule nor in any fight
for a shorter working week.

Under these conditions it would be very wrong to hold the car workers
absolutely responsible for the scabbing during the forty hours strike. The
above explanation shows clearly enough to the usual member of the working
class who has seen the spy system and the victimisation system in
operation, that the essential blame for the cars being out during the
strike of January 1919 must be placed on the shoulders of Mr James
Dalrymple….

The tramway system of Glasgow has been boasted of all over the world as
the triumph of municipal socialism. From the standpoint of profit-making
efficiency I have no objection to raise. But socialism implies security,
comfort, and happiness for the people who actually run the cars.

Victimisation is the opposite of security, and spying is degrading both
to the spy and the one spied upon. Spying implies that it
“pays” to hold your tongue; it spells ruin if you speak your
mind. Socialism means that your bread and butter are secure no matter what
you think. Socialism means that you are free and entitled to speak your
mind.

Under socialism the making of profit will give place to the comfort of
the employees…. From a labour standpoint the “municipal
socialism” of the Glasgow trams is a ghastly blank…